Woman Kills Self After Change in Medication to Effexor

Thursday,July21st,2011

Paragraph three reads: "Giving evidence, staff nurse Lindsay Archer said that on the day she died, November 24, 2010, 42-year-old Mrs Morgan had looked vacant and unsteady, but as she had recently changed medication this was not unusual."

Paragraph eight reads: "The court heard that the type of medication Mrs Morgan could increase the risk of patients wanting to self-harm before making them feel better."

Last paragraph reads: "Recording a verdict of suicide, Coroner Peter Maddox said: 'Mrs Morgan was found dead in the bath with an empty tablet box and apparent suicide note. Remarkably high levels of Venlafaxine [Effexor, an antidepressant] were found in her blood'.”

Depressed patient killed herself in the bath

A PATIENT at St Tydfil’s Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil died in the bath there after taking an overdose, an inquest heard.

Aberdare Coroner’s Court was told that Helen Morgan, from The Willows in Cwmdare, had voluntarily gone to the hospital, suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts.

Giving evidence, staff nurse Lindsay Archer said that on the day she died, November 24, 2010, 42-year-old Mrs Morgan had looked vacant and unsteady, but as she had recently changed medication this was not unusual.

Later in the day Ms Archer was delivering the patients’ medication, but could not find Mrs Morgan.

She said: “I went and checked the bathroom. I could hear water running so knocked on the door and called her name.

“I looked through the gap in the door and could see the water level was high and there was something black underneath.”

When the team gained entry they found Mrs Morgan had already died.

The court heard that the type of medication Mrs Morgan could increase the risk of patients wanting to self-harm before making them feel better.

Her husband said he believed his wife knew what she was doing when she took the tablets.

“Helen was very good at hiding what she was about to do,” he said.

“I don’t think anyone would have seen it coming. I think she was so desperate, her life had lost all purpose.

“She was fully aware of what she was doing.”

Recording a verdict of suicide, Coroner Peter Maddox said: “Mrs Morgan was found dead in the bath with an empty tablet box and apparent suicide note. Remarkably high levels of Venlafaxine [an antidepressant] were found in her blood.”